yazprofessionalpractices

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Critical Appraisal

What is my final outcome? 

My final outcome for this project is a finalized 2D character for a collaborative games design brief, in which we have made a playable platform game, named “Shadow and the Magic Umbrella”. The story behind the character is supported by the idea that it must hide from the light to get to the end point of the game. The environment in which it travels gradually turns from being an abandoned, mechanical factory setting to a wild, overgrown forest, as the levels progress. The prop held by the character is a steam-punk style umbrella, which the shadow has found along the way, once belonging to a human. It uses this object to hide itself from the sporadic light shining through the shrouded area, as well as to help it float above obstacles. The tapered end of the shadow’s head emits a purple glow, signifying a magical element, as well has having connotations of mystery, power and ambition.  

What went well? 

I think that overall, the artwork came out effectively for this project, and we were all able to come up with successful assets as a team. I was particularly happy with the moth NPC character I created, following the brief I was given from the games design students. This was a fairly niche concept to have to create artwork for, but with some referencing and research, I was able to produce an interesting design, along with a sprite sheet for the animation. I think that we communicated effectively as a team to produce all the elements we needed for the game to be complete, despite some issues with timing at the start. The design students were helpful in their putting across of ideas to us in the thought generation stage and we felt confident in what we were making. Collaborating was a key part of this project, and I feel that we did this sufficiently which ultimately led to our success as a team in the end.  

What did I struggle with?  

The part of the project that I struggled with the most was definitely the frame-by-frame animation part of character creation. I struggled to grasp how I might go about altering the character frames into a sequence that worked when put together to suggest movement. I wasn’t sure how the character would actually move or get around the scene, given it’s fluid structure and mainly due to the fact that I had never tried to animate a character before – I was going into this hugely un-equipped for success. After some turmoil, I gradually started making progress by duplicating character frames, erasing and altering certain parts in order to change the pose each time. As I was doing this from scratch each time, I had no idea how this would look in the end. Luckily the animation that I produced did work effectively and the rest of my team were happy with what I had made.  

What would I do differently next time?  

If I were to do this again, I would have put more research into how I could have animated my characters more effectively. Since completing the project, I have learnt how to use the Timeline tab in Photoshop, which aids frame-by-frame animation. When I did my frames, I didn’t have the “onion skin” layer from the previous frame to help me, or any real guideline. I think that if I had taken less time on this part of the artwork creation, I could’ve had more time to possibly help my teammates with other parts of the asset list necessary for gameplay. Further on this, something I would have done differently is make more frames for the animation, thus making a more fluid and seamless loop. This would have made the movement seem far more realistic and powerful for the player, and ultimately more immersive. Despite this, I think that the rough, sketchy style of the artwork is charming and adds to the stylistic nature of the overall outcome. 

What did I learn from this project?  

Undertaking this project taught me a great deal about creative collaboration. This was my first time working with a group of other students to produce a fully realized digital game – it was also my first time working with students from another pathway. It was important for me to learn the value of timekeeping and to have certain elements ready for the team by a deadline so that it could be used in production. I felt that it thrust us all into an environment where we had to communicate sufficiently, otherwise the work would suffer greatly. We were all able to voice our opinions on how the project was going, things we would like to change, and setting the pace for workflow. I think that we all rose to the occasion and were ultimately successful in this project. It goes without saying that I learnt valuable skills about 2D animation, and the steps required to execute this – I look forward to using the skills I have learnt throughout the Professional Practices unit in my future work.  

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Week 12 #2

This is a continuation of simple animations I put together using the frames I made in Photoshop for the moth character. I didn't make GIF animations for all the sequences I provided to the design students, as this would soon by done by them in the game itself - this is just for my reference and my PDF for submission.

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Week 12

This week was the final week of artwork, I put together simple animations of the frames I had created for my character(s). Since completing the project, I have learnt how to use the Timeline tab in Photoshop, which aids frame-by-frame animation. When I did my frames, I didn’t have the “onion skin” layer from the previous frame to help me, or any real guideline. I think that if I had taken less time on this part of the artwork creation, I could’ve had more time to possibly help my teammates with other parts of the asset list necessary for gameplay. Despite this, I am happy with the way my looped animation turned out.

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Week 11

My fellow artists were tasked with the other elements of the artwork for this project - these being assets/prop, and environment, foreground & background. We regularly communicated over Teams & Discord to make sure we were all happy with the designs we were producing, and that they all looked cohesive together. The consistent communication greatly improved our combined work ethic and overall aesthetic of the artwork, as we gave each other helpful notes throughout and were able to easily voice any concerns. I think that the overall appearance of the assets put together came out effective, and we were able to achieve a concurrent tone that projects our intentions; to create a neglected and organic environment.

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Floating ^

Week 10

This week I successfully completed all animation frames and added them all to a sprite sheet document, ready to be sent to the designers. I also completed a floating sequence for the character which we thought was essential for storytelling and functionality. I found the process of making this sprite sheet the most challenging part of the whole project as I am completely unfamiliar with 2D animation. Despite this, my team were satisfied with the work I was able to produce and it was sent over for implementation.

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Holding umbrella ^

Idle ^

Week 9

This week I managed to finish all of the animation frames for the main shadow character. I found that just slightly altering part such as where the wispy ends taper off, and making the character blink, was sufficient for animation, as our character is an apparition and doesn't need to invoke too much movement.

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Week 8

After the initial creating of the moth character and having all of the artwork at my disposal for manipulation, I was able to come up with frames for animation - 5 for the flying sequence & 3 for idle. I made sure that it would be possible for these sequences to be looped continuously, which would produce a seamless animation. I provided each frame to the games design students, so they could implement & rig this into the finished game.

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Week 7

This week I completed the artwork for the NPC moth character I was briefed on. I split this into 2 processes, making the body, then the costume, which I could cut and splice onto each alteration. I made these into transparent images and drew line-art for each form, which I was then able to apply the colour on top of. I found this process personally effective, and was able to get a lot done without having to re-draw/re-colour parts of the character. I could just lasso & transform parts which didn't quite fit, etc. From here I continued to make frames for a flying & an idle animation.

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Week 6

Part way through the project, I recieved a design brief from the games design students, detailing a second character that they would like to be part of the game as a visual aid or “companion”. This character would fly in and out of the scene, giving tips and speech to the player, as direction for gameplay. We wanted to implement a moth character wearing a mid-century style business suit, to both add to the art style, and indicate this character’s wealth of knowledge. Once the initial design was approved by my team, I set on making thumbnails and experimented with colour.

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Week 5

This week I finalised the final polished "rendered" image of the main character for our game. I was happy with the way this looked and so was the rest of my team. From here I was able to go ahead and start making alternate versions of this in the form of a sprite sheet for animation.

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Week 4

With some help from the team, I was able to produce an appropriate final design for the character (shown right) that looks effective and works with the game mechanics. My next task was to create an idle pose for the character, and to start working on some animation frames in the form of a sprite sheet.

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Week 3

This week I began drafting designs - we soon realised that it was imperative for the character to be touching the ground, which lead to some struggle in composition. We all liked the second draft, however we didn’t want the character to come across too monstrous and solid – the idea was to have something with a more fluid and transparent in form.

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Week 2

In my team I was assigned the role of character development. Initially, we had lots of ideas, including possibly having the main or side character being an animal that might be found in a forest, and stylising this. I did lots of concept-ing and thumbnails to work towards this, which were all sent to and considered by my peers in the group. We all decided that a more hunched figure with an anxious expression would work best and add the most story to the game asset(s), given that the shadow is hiding from something. It was important that the character be able to hold a prop, as this was a big part of the game mechanics. I kept this in mind throughout the whole process, making sure this would be feasible. Producing these different thumbnails was very helpful in my process of creation as it helped me nail down the figure of my character and gave the games designers a few poses to choose from. We were all involved in the design, which made us confident.

[yazprofessionalpractices]

Week 1

In the first stages of our collaboration project with the games design students, we were given a brief by them which outlined the direction of our artwork. The idea was to create a wisp/shadow character that would float and emit a purple glow - the environment would gradually change from a built up mechanic city/factory setting, and become more wild and go deeper into the forest. The main character (shadow) must hide from the light to survive, so we decided on an umbrella prop for it to hold, which would also aid the floating function. The artwork for Ori and the Blind Forest was a good point of reference.